🚀 go-pugleaf

From: cms2839@isc.rit.edu (a.stranger)

|In article <Wed_Apr_10_17:44:53_1991@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> cameron@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz (Cameron Farquhar) writes:
|>For a friend..
|> 
|>I have recently sent away an order for Actor thanks to their special
|>deal going at the moment but I am unclear on a few things. 
|>
|>1) Do I need the SDK?
|>1a) If so, there are a few alternatives I beleive. What is the best one
|>    to get?
|				no . all SDK functions can be accessed
|through actor , and the resource compiler is included . the
|*documentation* of the SDK functions leaves a lot to be desired , though
|, and if you plan to use them , some sort of reference ( like Petzold )
|might come in handy . for the most part , though , you won't need them ,
|and you may be able to use the documentation that's included with actor
|( scant though it may be ) when you do .

Only the most basic ACTOR programs can get away without calling SDK
functions. If you want to use bitmaps, fill rectangles, use clipping,
draw in different fonts or colors, use the Windows Clipboard, or use
different cursors, you'll need to call SDK functions. (These are off the
top of my head - there are many, many more examples.). The ACTOR
documentation on the SDK is indeed abysmal. Try finding out about dialog
box control notification codes from the ACTOR manual, for example. There
are also many ACTOR functions which are uncommented straight-through calls
to SDK functions - these are impossible to understand without SDK
documentation (E.g. Window:changeMenu()).

|				there are no " alternatives " to the SDK
|other than other languages ; that's what actor is . there are , however
|, alternatives to the resource compiler . by far the best and the most
|complete , of any that i have heard of , is the Whitewater Groups own
|Whitewater Resource toolkit . it will save you incredible amounts of
|time designing and testing resources , whether you program in Actor , C
|, or anything else . it's included free with Borland languages , but
|Actor owners have to buy it seperately .

And note that you need either the SDK dialog editor or the WRT to
realistically build dialog boxes. *In principle*, you could do it using the
SDK documentation and a text editor, but it would drive you mad very
quickly.

>3) Books. I have Petzold's book for Windows 2. Is it worth getting an
>   update or is there a more Actor specific book around?
>
|				there's a book available called Object
|Oriented Programming Featuring Actor , but it's outdated , and , frankly
|, the Actor documentation is among the best i've ever seen

I'm afraid I disagree. There's *lots* of it (1200 pages), but it's more
like a cosy fireside chat than a language definition. The documentation of
the ACTOR kernel methods is also of an extremely low standard (compared to
the SDK documentation or the UNIX 'C' library for example).

|. be prepared to spend a good amount of time browsing the demo programs
|, though ; it's one of the best ways to learn the language .

Indeed, if you find learning by example, experiment and guesswork
stimulating, and you have the time to do it, you'll probably be quite happy
with ACTOR. If you want a fast learning curve and you want to produce
something reliable, ACTOR is the wrong choice. Also, be aware that the
system has many unchangeable arbitrary limits (maximum number of objects,
maximum dynamic memory, maximum static memory, maximum stack size, maximum
method size, maximum class comment size, maximum .h file size, off the top
of my head - again there are probably more). If you want to build a large
system which will grow, you'll eventually run into one of these, and what
will you do then? (We have this problem, and it looks as if we may have to
throw away 2 man-years of effort as a result). ACTOR is quite suitable for
hobby work, but don't stake your career on it.

Dave Wells